⚡️The Scribbled Line Toolchest - 2023 Update
Got creativity?
Hey friends! I can’t believe it’s already the end of October.
Fall is really here in Tennessee - we’ve had some wonderfully cool weeks here.
The trees are turning colors, and I think the first freeze is just around the corner . . .
Did you hear that they’re planning to make a new trilogy of Strangers movies?
Nothing like some good slasher/thriller movies. (I like the second one - especially for the fight scene at the pool).
If you’re still in the mood for some horror - The Quarry is on sale on the Xbox store.
Oh! Pepsi is getting a new logo, which means the ABSOLUTE CHAD energy of the old design is getting left behind. Yeah - read this Tweet.
I haven’t seen any new tasty Pepsi or Coca-Cola drinks lately. i was hoping we’d see some fun stuff around Halloween, but I guess not. I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the Coca-Cola 3000 flavor.
It was “eh” - I much preferred the Marshmallow peeps Pepsi that they sold around Easter time this year.
For the record - I don’t drink much soda, to be honest. I mostly drink coffee and water. I just have an obsession with trying fun drinks.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
⚡️Scribbled Line Toolchest- 2023
It’s almost the end of 2023, and A LOT has happened this year in the “creative tool” space.
By creative tool - I mean fun outside the box stuff that’s often bootstrapped or running off a wee bit of venture capital.
Here’s a piece I wrote on these back in 2020 - things have changed quite a bit since then.
We’ll be organizing these by medium - so you can click on the links of your choice.
A lot of this will feel like resharing/rewriting if you read my newsletter religiously, but hopefully, you might find a interesting new tool or two!
I keep track of so many things, I have to write something like this at least once a year or so for my own sanity, haha.
Here’s a Kinopio board where I try to keep track of stuff - I need to update it based on today’s article.
I hope you have some fun browsing through the links!
The Non-Linear Whiteboard
Personally - this is my favorite part of the group. I love a blank canvas app - especially one that isn’t owned by a megacorp (looking at you Figma Figjam, or Canva’s whiteboard) OR is a big company (Miro, Mural, Canva).
A few have perished or downsized - and others have grown!
The space has grown so big in the last few years that indie products need to have a considerable advantage to survive - Even Apple released a whiteboarding tool.
Whiteboards seem to have carved out their niche next to docs, spreadsheets, and note apps. Well done!
The Dead ‘uns and Downsizers.
Speaking of Megacorps, Figma bought Clover, and Dropbox bought clew.ai. Here’s a wayback screenshot if you want to see Clew. I imagine a few Clover elements are getting integrated into Figjam.
As for Downsizers - Muse app (iPad and Mac) has downsized to just one team member running the show, in the hopes it can reach sustainability at some point. Due to its focus on just iPad and Mac - it makes me wonder how long it will take to reach this goal.
The Persistent
Kinopio.club continues to shine in the creative whiteboard space - with new features shipping all the time - from code blocks to interactive embeds. I am heavily biased towards Kinopio and use it quite often. It’s hard to find products that are actually fun to use, and Kinopio fits the bill.
However, Kosmik continues to impress with all the things you can do - from whiteboarding to PDFS, in app web browsers, and more! Thanks to Kosmik, you can watch a YouTube video, and take notes on the same page. I’m excited to see how Kosmik drives the whiteboard space forward!
Excalidraw continues to rule the “hand-drawn” whiteboarding space with its simplicity. They have a pro plan now - which enables you to save your spaces for later.
Mymind is still alive and kicking as well! It’s now an “all in one” type tool.
If you’re more into moodboarding - Landing.space is carving out a nice space here. They even have an app now!
Outside the Box
Non linear video chat is a real thing - and Sprout.place is the winner here. It’s essentially a whiteboarding tool for video chats. One of the most creative tools I’ve seen in this space!
We can’t forget to pour one out for the deceased chat app muze.chat - why oh why didn’t you at least sell the app to Apple or something? What did you spend all that venture capital on?
I kinda wish they at least announced they were closing up shop - as opposed to their “this looks still alive” Twitter account.
Meanwhile - the tool we took a look at recently - Space OS - is a nonlinear canvas tool where you can code, browse the web, write, and do a whole lot of other cool stuff. Since it’s essentially reinventing the personal computer online - I put it last on this list since it’s kind of a bridge between the whiteboard space and . . .
Creative Tools
This category continues to surprise me with the amount of interesting ideas being developed.
Creative Browsers
This is an ENTIRELY NEW category - and recent to the last year.
Outside of the obvious “Chat GPT” and associated AI apps - there are a few that I’ve found in this category that are worth looking into. We’ve discussed most of them in the past - so if they sound familiar, they probably are.
The only AI browser I’ll be mentioning is the fantastic metaphor.systems web browser. This browser will surface things you’ve never found before. It makes Google Chrome look like some sort of outdated Model T when it comes to surfacing interesting content. No SEO insanity here.
Though it isn’t quite a browser - Moonbounce is a really interesting browser extension. With it - you can hang out with your friends online on web pages! Watch videos, explore the web - and chat together.
In the multiplayer sphere - the upcoming Braid Browser looks really promising. I personally can’t wait to use it! As opposed to Moonbounce, you can actually explore the internet together in a fully interactive browser.
Leading up the list is Browser.horse - this browser creates a trail throughout your browsing, so you can follow just how you got down an insane rabbit hole.
Information Hunters
Though Raindrop may continue to be one of the most popular bookmarking tools - I’d be a fool not to bring up the fact that Fabric may eventually eat its lunch and dinner. Usability across apps and phones is one of the key parts of the “bookmark tool war” and Fabric already has all the apps.
There’s a lot of bookmarking tools out there - but it’s the integrations that make them shine. Until Fabric has IFTTT or Zapier - Raindrop will continue to hold the crown in my opinion.
Sharing our precious bookmarks is now a niche (again - since digg and StumbleUpon are shells of shells of their former selves) and sublime is a pretty interesting player in the space. I personally need to make a stronger discipline of using it!
Who’s bookmarking the same things as you? what have they found? There lies the question.
Another possible player in this “bookmark sharing” space is Atmos PR - which also allows you to “connect the dots” with other “bookmarkers” across the internet.
When it comes to note taking - napkin continues to stoke interest and Exegesis is pretty nifty.
The Alternative Internet
I call it the alternative internet but a better way to express it might be “apps that connect you with your friends for authentic experiences.”
Create a website and share it with your friends with mmm.page - the most wonderful website builder ever! It’s getting a social element soon!
The upcoming Myspace alternative Nospace looks primed to create a cult following out of the gate.
Shelf tracks what you’re reading/watching/listening to and shares it as a nifty profile.
The Airbuds widget tracks your friends music in an interactive widget on your homescreen, so you can see what your friends are listening to (and vice-versa).
Meanwhile, Pager seeks to do cool stuff with all of our many, many screenshots.
AND - we can’t forget the elusive USB Club, which will make physical information sharing cool again.
🐙The Land of Random
Into the random we go!
Classic Screensavers
Want some retro screensavers? My personal favorite features flying toasters.
Paperhead
This game looks unhinged. Clearly, Julius Caesar needed this pencil.
The Message.Social
An interesting social experiment in which you can only replace the message if you have more followers. It’s gonna take a while to replace the one on there I think - but go for it if you have more than 2.8 million followers.
Retro Cassette Player
Might I remind you that “We are Rewind” exists and sells really dope cassette players?
Bloom
A social media platform that’s been reimagined as a garden. The more a conversation continues, the bigger the (actual) pixel flower grows!
Write Down Your Passwords
Password security is important - and we all need to get better at it. This strategy may not work for many, but it’s quite interesting!
Mega Trippy Visualizer
It just keeps going on forever . . .
🎶TikToks You Can’t Miss
I doubt many interviews start off like that
How in the world is that a real car. It has fins.
Maybe this is what lurks in the Appalachian mountains
Ewaste OS? Hmmm. Gonna have to try that.
Umm. I don’t think that’s a cow . . . .
That’s pretty clever. Dang.
AI AHHHHHHHHH
You must beware the mushroom books, anon.
Run Llama 2 on your computer and compare it to ChatGPT controls.
I would love nothing more than to give my kids an AI pocket field guide for identifying rocks, trees, flowers, etc.
That’s all for this week! See you next time unless you want to check out this fighting mouse game.
